Carl and all - regarding the (perceived?) tradeoff between commissions and good execution, the mileage various depending on yoiur trading pattern. I infact do not trade much in my taxable account and I like to buy in smaller chunks (100 shares as a typical trade for a 20$ stock) so comission do matter. Many of my trades are limit buys because i cannot trade from work, so I am not seeing much of an impact on fills. of course if you average trade amount is 20K, then a 10$ commission does not matter that much, and I would go for the perceived best execution - this is the Carl Worth case. For my case no frills is appropriate and i guess for many others as well.
As far as WFC and BAC are concerned, i simply think they have figured out that they can provide no frills trades for very little cost, so they can enhance their banking relationship for folks like me, by adding free trades. I don't think they see the brokerage business as core but i think the see E-trade and the likes expanding in their turf with Savings& Money market account, personal loans, bill payment, and they feel they have to counter. For me it sounds great as i have more options to find the banking& Brokerage solution that suits me best.
I agree that ETFC is unlikely to go under, as they are fairly diversified already, but i think AMTD is much more vulnerable, as the % of revenues from commissions still exceeds 50% i believe. |
